


Sorry I’m Late, I Was Saving Paris

by KrazyKyStaHatter



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Humour, School-wide memes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 16:09:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10970730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrazyKyStaHatter/pseuds/KrazyKyStaHatter
Summary: Caline Bustier has heard many ridiculous excuses from Marinette when she is late. But this one took the cake.What she had not expected, was for it to be true.





	Sorry I’m Late, I Was Saving Paris

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is just a little one-shot reveal, inspired by a line in another one-shot I am working on. (The never-ending spiral of inspiration doom!)  
> Clearly, this one spoke to me most, because I got it done in just a couple of days.  
> Just one of my usual humour one-shots, so I hope you like it!!!

If there was one thing Caline Bustier could count on in her class, it was Marinette. Oh, sure, she was a brilliant, reliable class president, and always turned her homework in on time (sometimes just in the nick of time, but still on time). But no, what she could count on, was that Marinette would be late (not all the time, just… way too often at this point) and that when she arrived, she would make the most ridiculous excuses that she had ever heard.

They were the excuses of someone panicking and struggling for an excuse. And as creative as Marinette was… she was _atrocious_ at coming up with believable lies. Oh, they were still brilliantly creative, just not one bit believable. In fact, some of them were so brilliantly insane that she had started making a list of them in a notebook that sat on her desk. So far she had filled up an entire two pages, and there were some utter gems.

She had even talked with some of the other teachers and they had come across the same thing. Though she wasn’t as lenient with Marinette’s tardiness, Ms Mendeleiev still shared some of her favourite excuses with her.

Still, nothing  would ever beat:

“I’m sorry I’m late!” Marinette called as she dashed in. “I - I was…” She panted slightly as she rushes up to her desk and began unpacking her things. You could practically see her floundering for an excuse. “ _I was saving Paris!”_

For a moment there was complete silence, in which it seemed to dawn on Marinette what she had just said. And then the class burst out laughing. The poor girl turned red, sinking into her chair and hiding her face in a book. Chloe scoffed, making a comment on how she couldn’t save anything if she tried. Alix laughed with a ‘typical Marinette’. Adrien was grinning at his classmate, saying how he needed to use that one sometime. And Alya gave an exasperated ‘oh, girl…’ along with a comforting pat on the back.

Ms Bustier just shook her head in fond exasperation and wrote the excuse down in the book. She was well used to the excuses by now and had given up on reprimanding her for it. She knew that three letters had already been sent to her parents about it. But she also knew that Marinette worked hard to make up for what she had missed and that her grades were just fine despite this. Marinette was a good girl, and since her grades weren’t suffering, she saw no point in getting her into more trouble than she needed. She knew that she took a lot of outside projects which probably kept her busy at all hours. It was the same as Adrien. If the school could make an allowance for his creative outlets, then she saw no problem in Marinette doing the same.

 

And speaking of…

It was only the next day when Adrien had arrived back to class late after lunch. Not by too much, but enough to be noticeable. Marinette had run into the class just on the warning bell. Adrien walked in a few minutes later, a wide grin on his face. “Sorry I’m late, Ms,” he said. “I was saving Paris.” As he said this, he winked at Marinette.

The class laughed.

Marinette choked.

 

And in the coming weeks, Ms Bustier grew to regret her decision to let the excuse slide. Because from that moment on, that was the only excuse she heard from any student in her class.

“Sorry I’m late, I was saving Paris!”

From Marinette, from Adrien, from Chloe, from Alya, Alix, Kim, Ivan, and even Nathanaël. _Everyone_ began to use the excuse so often it began to grate on her nerves. And she wasn’t the only one. Apparently, they were starting to use it in other classes… and other students were starting to pick up on the joke like a school-wide meme. No one used actual, legitimate excuses anymore. Even if the teacher knew the actual reason if they were late, even if they had a note to explain why they were late from a parent or other teacher, it would always be the same thing.

“Sorry I’m late, I was saving Paris.”

When one girl walked into class dressed as Chat Noir and said it, was decided at the staff meeting that the teachers needed to have a word with their students.

 

So here she stood, in front of her class, giving them all the standard lecture that every class was being given that morning. To her dismay, both Marinette and Adrien (the instigators of the trend - not that she’d ever tell the other teachers) were both absent.

It was ten minutes into the first lesson of the day, and five minutes into her lecture about how students were no longer allowed to say it that she heard...

“Sorry I’m late! I was saving Paris!”

Ms Bustier sighed. She had been expecting this. Considering that Marinette was not here yet, of course, she would run in with the excuse halfway through her lecture… What she hadn’t been expecting to see, though, was Ladybug.

There were gasps from the class and more than a few open mouths. Ms Buster just looked at the hero in confusion. She could have sworn it had been Marinette running in.

“What?” Ladybug asked, picking up on the tone of the room. “Why is everyone looking at me like that?” As she gestured out to the class, she seemed to just notice her arm and let out a small, startled shriek. She looked at her arm as if it was the first time she had ever seen it, panic in her eyes. “Oh no...”

“Sorry I’m late! I was-” Adrien stopped in the doorway, cutting himself off as his eyes fell on the superheroine before him. “Ladybug? What are you-?”

He was cut off by the sound of a beep, and Ladybug tensed. The boy’s eyes widened in realisation, but no one even had time to blink before a bright light filled the room and faded away to reveal… _Marinette!_

If the gasps of surprise when Ladybug had entered the room was everyone freaking out, it was nothing compared to this. There were many cries of shock and some other things she did not have the focus to pay attention to. The only thing that stood out was Alya practically shouting ‘ _Holy fucking mother of shit! Marinette_!’

The only thing she could focus on was her petrified student. The poor girl was standing there, frozen in utter panic. A small red, bug-like creature had appeared and was hovering near her shoulder, looking just as panicked. Marinette looked like she wanted to cry or run, or both.

All she could think was ‘ _Well, now everything makes so much more sense. Fuck._ ’

“Marinette!” the small creature reprimanded, panic in her voice.

“I’m sorry!” she cried, turning to her Kwami. “I didn’t even notice! I’m tired! We were fighting that Akuma since 6am and patrol didn’t even finish till 3am! I got three hours sleep, Tikki!!!”

Ms Bustier blinked a few times, snapping herself out of her stupor. She leant heavily on her desk and let out a long breath.

“Alight,” she said, speaking to the class, though she was keeping her eyes firmly directed at the wood of her desk. “To reiterate, no one is allowed to use ‘ _Sorry I’m late. I was saving Paris’_ as an excuse for being late… Except for Marinette, because she… actually… is…” She looked up at the girl who was standing nervously in front of the entire class still, slightly bouncing on the spot as if she wanted to run away. “Do your parents even know?”

Marinette shook her head. “N-no,” she said quietly, sounding nervous and a little panicked. “No one knows… _knew_. Not my parents, not Alya. Not even Chat Noir knows!”

“Well, I do now, damn it, Buggaboo!” an incredulous voice blurted loudly.

Everyone’s heads snapped towards the doorway where Adrien was still standing. His eyes were wide and he was covering his mouth as if he had said something he shouldn’t have… Considering… he probably just had. Marinette stared at him, her mouth open. She saw her eyes dart to the ring on his finger, and the poor girl seemed to turn a shade whiter.

“Oh my god…” she whispered.

“Oh my god!” Alya cried. “Oh my god! _Oh my god!_ **_Oh my GOD!_ ** ”

Ms Bustier sat down heavily in her chair as the class went into an uproar. The two heroes drew closer together as their classmates shouted things at them or to each other. Alya exclaiming how she should have known and that everything made sense. Nino freaking out that two of his best friends were superheroes. Chloe seemed to be having an existential crisis over the fact that Marinette was Ladybug (her apparent best friend) and that the ‘mangey’ Chat Noir was actually her lifelong friend and these things just did not seem to compute to her. The rest of the class were loudly discussing how obvious it was now and pointing out times they should have known. Meanwhile, Marinette and Adrien had nervously backed towards the door, their hands were now intertwined and they were looking at each other as if silently communicating a desperate plan to flee.

“Enough!” she shouted loud enough to be heard over the din. She sat there, her head in her hand as if she were trying to ward off a headache. When she spoke, her voice was heavy and tired. “No one is allowed to use the excuse ‘ _I was saving Paris_ ’ except for Marinette and Adrien when they are actually doing just that.” She let out a deep sigh. “Class dismissed for the day. Go do… anything. Go save Paris or something!”

No sooner had the words left her lips, the heroes had bolted from the room. Everyone else was looking too busy looking at her in concern to notice them go at first, but when they did, Alya was the first to run out the door, dragging Nino behind her as they went to search for their friends.

The rest of the class followed out not long after and she sighed again.

She needed a drink. A very strong drink.

Her eyes fell on the little notebook that lay open on her desk, all of Marinette’s excuses were scrawled in front of her. All the ridiculous excuses that she _knew_ had been lies, but…

‘ _My cat was caught in a tree._ ’

_‘Some ducklings were crossing the road, and I had to make sure that they weren’t run over.’_

‘ _My dog ate my sweater. (To my knowledge, she has neither a dog nor a cat)._ ’

‘ _My shoelaces were untied and I tripped up and hurt my ankle. (Not wearing laced shoes. Walking on foot fine).’_

_‘I wasn’t paying attention and got lost on my way to school. (She lives across the street).’_

‘ _I got my leg stuck in a chair and couldn’t get it out. (Apparently, she’d wanted to see if it could fit?)_ ’

‘My breakfast caught on fire… So did the sofa’.

‘ _My bathroom handle fell off and I couldn’t get out._ ’

‘ _I had to stop for tampons! (I don’t think I have ever seen her that embarrassed)_.’

‘ _I sat on chocolate and had to change my pants._ ’

‘ _This giant moth attacked me on my way here… It turned out to be a pigeon. Bloody pigeons_.’

‘ _My homework slipped out of my bag and blew to the park so I had to go dig it out of some bushes! I'm sorry for the dirt on my vocabulary sheets, Ms!_ ’

‘ _I thought I was allergic to peanuts suddenly, but it turns out when you're laughing while eating you can choke._ ’

And finally, the one truth she had ever told… ‘ _I was saving Paris_ ’.

Her head fell on the desk with a thunk.


End file.
